This invention relates generally to wire frame structures of the type used by home gardeners and, more specifically, to a plastic clip employed to hold intersecting wires of these wire frame structures in place.
Wire frame structures are in widespread use in the home garden industry for protecting sensitive plants, such as tomatoes, from hail, frost, and other potentially destructive forces of nature. They are also widely used to provide a "hot house" environment for early season growing of plants, by supporting a plastic bag or some other translucent plastic material in a position surrounding the plants. These wire frame structures are also commercially available in the form of arbors and latticeworks. All of the commercially available wire frame structures of the type described above are disadvantageous in that they are typically fabricated using spot welding techniques for securing the individual wire members at their intersections. Since these prior art structures are available only in assembled form, they are bulky to transport and store.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a wire frame structure that may be shipped unassembled in a substantially flat package, easily assembled by the home gardener, and just as easily disassembled for compact storage at the end of the growing season.
This and other objects are accomplished in accordance with the illustrated preferred embodiments of the present invention by providing a plastic structural assembly clip that serves to retain wire frame members in place at their points of intersection. Each of the clips is formed in the general shape of a cylindrical shell, open at one end and closed at the other end, a peripheral wall of the shell having two pairs of diametrically opposed, equally spaced slots formed longitudinally therein, each pair of slots being formed to different depths to retain the intersecting wire frame members without interference therebetween. Each of the slots is tapered and terminates at an interior end thereof in a circular notch portion having a diameter slightly larger than the width of the tapered slot at its narrowest point. This configuration allows each of the intersecting wire frame members to be snapped into the circular notch portion of the slot and to be securely retained therein until such time as the user chooses to disassemble the wire frame structure.